For now

I am temporarily suspending this blog. Too much going on.

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Spin Me I Pulsate

A Conundrum

Rosalyn turns ONE YEAR OLD in a little while, and I have absolutely no idea what to get her.

It wasn't this hard with Vivian. In fact, NO presents were this hard with her. The first child, you still seem to labour under this delusion that Lamaze toys really are worth 40.00, and that they textures will mean anything to a 3 month old. You don't really realize that most of the things you buy them, with either:

1. Be chewed on, licked and then thrown under the couch
2. Be totally ignored, except for the packaging
3. Not even be looked at until you are about to Freecycle it.

Now I know better. Now, I'm hard pressed to buy ANYTHING for Rosalyn, because I know that I might as well just throw money into the wind. Plus, it's likely that we already own the toy in some capacity.

This is also compounded by the fact that Vivian insists on playing with anything we get Rosalyn, and that they both play with toys in totally different ways. Vivian is more of an experimenter, while Rosalyn actually uses toys in the ways they are intended. In fact, that seemed really odd to us.

"Look dear, she's putting the pegs in the holes. WOW."

I also want the first birthday present to be something special, which I didn't do for Vivian. Instead, I spent 40.00 on this walking toy that NEITHER child will play with to this day. I thought she'd dig it. HA! She did, however, love the tag, and was very upset when I took that away.

So I'm thinking of something birthstone related, but not earrings since I think that's gross and if they have my ears, then they won't be able to wear earrings anyway.

Any thoughts?

oh that's DAMN cool. Thanks to "The Other Mother" for the link.

Shopping for Baby

Is it me or is there just WAY too much crap out there for babies? It actually seems more difficult when shopping for other people. I mean, really, what do they NEED?

Close friends of ours recently had twins, Eirik and Callan. 2 little boys. I have girls. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to shop for boys when you have girls? But at least there were no fiddley little buttons on the back of their polo shirts.

So what is it that you couldn't live without with your babies? For me, it was simple stuff like the imitation boppy I had, or the heating pad for the crib. Any other thoughts, as more people around me are ready for new births?

And send out happy thoughts for the new babies I know, Eirik & Callan, Ayden and Kenneth. And try not to cringe at the weird spellings. And what IS with all the boys?!?!

Things you'll Need

Places you'll go, people you'll be
we're all here, in your arms, under
you legs, in the faces you make as
you walk past the Bay's lonely sales windows.

We hide among your wrinkled belly marks your
tired legs and toes
Sleep in is 8am you say
winking at the pine trees and finches.

things that you need? You need peace and
cheerios, cold comfort in the morning
you need slippers and kleenex and
a heart that cannot be broken so
simply

We could tell you to look to
your own hands, the lines the minutes you
will soon lose out on and wonder where they got to
we could tell you to gaze into tomorrow in wonder
or we could tell you that

no one could ever tell you, no one
could whisper or scream or tattoo
the agony the triumph or fear ,
the absolute devoted stare you will
soon come to possess.

It worked!

So.

The other night was bad, for all of us. Vivian would NOT sleep in her own bed. Now, I know this is totally normal, but it was SO out of left field for her that we were totally thrown off. We yelled, we screamed, we stomped, and to my shame, I slapped my child.

There is only one other thing I feel ashamed of in my life.

It ended with me crawling into hed bed, and getting 2 hours sleep.

I vowed this would not happen again, and even if it did, I would NOT react. It was not the rational thing to do. I let my instinct guide me, and what happened was the ONE thing I did not want.

So instead, we formulated a plan. No TV in the afternoon. More playing. Listening to music. INTERACTING with us.

I had a nice bath with her prior to bedtime, let her "wash" Mommy, let her play drums on the tupperware.

She went peacefully to bed, and we fell exhausted into bed.

NOT A PEEP all night. In fact, when I left at 8, she was still asleep.

I feel so good knowing that rationality worked. I feel terrible about the slap however. Likely always will.

Hopefully, this works for the rest of toddlerhood too.

Things learned in the ER

"Lifting your child by the arm to help them jump over the puddle is NOT a good idea."

The Dorf inadvertantly pulled Vivian's arm out from the wrist or elbow. I had the SUPREME joy of taking her in. I felt like they'd call CAS or something.

Vivian was happy. She got a popsicle AND a new toy after the (cute) doctor popped it back in and lectured me for a little while. The new toy is a lamb called "Boomie"

First time I've EVER been in and out of an ER in an hour.